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Mittiga, M.A., Wise, S.E., and Buchanan, B.W. 2004.

The effect of abnormal nocturnal illumination on the larval development of Xenopus laevis.

Light pollution is rapidly becoming a major environmental issue.
Research has shown that exposure to bright nocturnal lighting retards
the development of amphibians, slowing growth, but no data exist
indicating the threshold levels of night lighting that may cause
developmental delays. We propose that larvae of Xenopus laevis will
suffer a retardation in development that is reflective of the intensity
of nocturnal illumination they are exposed to. We exposed replicates of
multiple genotypes of African clawed frog tadpoles (Xenopus laevus) to
normal levels of diurnal illumination (12 h at 100 lx) and a gradient
of nocturnal illuminations (12 h at 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10, or 100 lx). Thus,
members of each treatment were exposed to varying levels of darkness at
night but the same daylight. Three groups of genotypically distinct
larvae were obtained from a commercial source. The larvae are housed in
ten compartments of 24 individuals each. Each genotype has an equal
number of representatives per compartment. The position of the
treatments on shelves is randomized, and the intensity of the nocturnal
illumination in the compartments ranges from 0.01 lux to 100 lux, at 1
order-of-magnitude increments. The larvae will be allowed to develop
for 30 days. At the conclusion of the study, mortality and size will be
compared among the different nocturnal illumination treatments.

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